Saturday, 12 July 2014

US offer for mountain guns “too expensive”

The 155mm/52 calibre towed gun, put together by Bharat Forge in a couple of years

By Ajai Shukla

Business Standard, 12 July 14

The army’s wait continues for a critical weapon system, the
155 millimetre ultralight howitzers (ULH) that are needed to provide teeth to
the mountain divisions on the Sino-Indian border. For years, New Delhi and
Washington have negotiated the purchase of 145 M777 howitzers --- manufactured
in the US by BAE Systems --- for a price that could now exceed $694 million.

Today, the new government pronounced the US offer
unacceptable. Replying to a question in parliament, Defence Minister Arun
Jaitley stated, “The case for procurement of Ultra-Light Howitzer (ULH) guns
through US Government has not progressed due to cost issues and because the
vendor has not been able to come up with a proposal fully compliant to the
offset requirements.”

New Delhi is negotiating the purchase directly with
Washington because the guns are being bought through the Foreign Military Sales
(FMS) programme. In this, the US
Department of Defense (Pentagon) sells weaponry directly to buyers, negotiating terms with the
supplier (in this case BAE Systems) and charging the buyer government a small fee
for its services.

Business Standard learns that the ministry of defence (MoD)
is displeased that the Pentagon has raised the cost of the gun. In early 2010, in
a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) issued in response to an Indian request for the
guns, the Pentagon had quoted $647 million. Three years later, in March 2013, it
issued a fresh LoA, raising the price to $694. In October 2013, even that offer
expired.

On Aug 7, in
keeping with US laws, the Pentagon had re-notified the US Congress about the
deal. Superseding its notification of Jan 26, 2010, which had priced the deal at
US $647 million, the new notification mentioned a price of “up to $885
million”.

Senior
Pentagon sources clarify that the $885 million cost is the “upper limit of the
price envelope”, in case the deal takes years longer.If it is finalized quickly, they say the cost
might not be much more than the $694 million in last year’s LoA.

Production
on the BAE Systems production line in Hattiesburg, US, closed down last year.
Company sources say restarting the line and re-certifying suppliers of
sub-systems involve a cost. A company spokesperson told Business Standard, “BAE
Systems maintains its readiness to produce the combat-proven M777 for US
government sales to the government of India.”

Top Indian
Army generals have publicly stated that the shortage of modern artillery would
be a crucial drawback in any future war, especially in the mountains. India’s
220 artillery regiments (with 18 guns each) have guns procured in the 1970s and
1980s. With overseas purchases repeatedly tendered and cancelled, and with the
ghost of the Bofors scandal lurking over any artillery procurement, the MoD has
now begun an indigenous process for obtaining guns.

The
procurement of the M777 was further delayed by the blacklisting of its
competitor, the Pegasus howitzer offered by Singapore Technologies Kinetic
(STK). That has made the M777 purchase a “single-vendor contract”, which has
tended to make the MoD tread cautiously.

12 comments:

It is a shame that a tiny nation like Singapore can make ultra-light 155mm howitzer but we can't or we just do not to produce! We are sending satellite to moon and mars but can’t produce a howitzer!! What an irony .

If we really need to change all the machinery Why army need a only 155mm howitzer for mountain? Why not a smaller bore gun which is much lighter in weight and highly maneuverable! In mountainous region more than the range (range increases due to thin air) the accuracy matters ! I think Baba Kalyani group made Garuda 105 mm (Copy of Hawkeye 105) Howitzer could have been a good choice. It may be smaller in bore but much lighter (less than 1 ton, compare to almost 4 ton of M 777) and easily moveable on a Jeep. Considering the pathetic condition of roads at Himalayas and we do not too many heavy lift helicopters, it may be a good choice.Disclaimer : I don’t have any interest in that said group.

We can product howitzers, its not that we cant. But we simply don't accept what we produce because there is less money to be earned by bureaucrats if we go domestic. Does someone imagine why does the cost of all our equipment increase once ordered. I am pretty sure all know where the extra money is going.

A list of what we can produce:

1. Dhanush Gun (only 100 ordered, it should be 500 guns)2. Bharat Gun (not even tested)3. Pinaka (only 80 inducted)4. Arjun Tank (declined for the T90, despite being better in every aspect)5. Tejas (why only 40 Mk1 - it should at least be a 100 and another 100 mk2, this would ensure continuous production and IAF would get 200 jets for $7 billion, would it not make sense to take more FGFA as they are the future, plus HAL should take the onus of taking 50% of that work)6. We should also set up a domestic submarine building felicity in collaboration with a foreign sub maker.

What we need to import:

1. Chinook (we should double the order for this)2. Submarines (improved kilo class submarines - only 6 of them with the brahmos would be a gap filler until project 75I)3. Self-propelled howitzers (too many types requested, would it not make sense to take 800 mounted guns it would cost 3 billion and give us the quantity)4. Naval Helicopters 5. Light utility helicopters6. Import basic trainers7. Import Intermediate trainers, HAL has enough on its plate, (Tejas, Sukhoi, FGFA, Dhruv, Rudra, LCA, LCU) I always felt that HAL should have produced a basic trainers not a level 2 trainer.

is defence industry in usa manned only by americans?nope. rather a good chunk of people working for various defence companies, come from Europe, china, india etc. these are mostly people who shifted to usa to pursue higher studies and then were absorbed in the industry. so using foreign talent to develop our defence industry is an angle to pursue for indigenous production. target especially Germany and japan, who though have great talent in this field, are unable to utilize it fully due to restrictions imposed on them after world war 2. maybe if they don't want to move to india, then indian companies through the private sector (tata, reliance etc) can setup shop in these countries or maybe even a neutral country and hire talented people to produce things we are unable to produce internally.for example, india has struggled to manufacture a fighter aircraft engine locally. maybe that is a project that can be done through indian private companies using talented germans and Japanese engineers.

THE DEEPLY IMBEDED ISI AGENTS IN VARIOUS DECISION MAKING DEPTS HAVE ENSURED NO OFFENSIVE HOWITZERS BEING INDUCTED FOR LAST 30 YRS. INDIAN MOUNTIAN , RAPIDS , STRIKE CORPS AND DESERT FORMATIONS ARE DENUDED AND POORLY EQUIPED WITH THE OUTDATED ARTILLARY . FORCED RECRUITMENT OF POLITCANS , IAS , IFS , IPS AND BUSINESS MEN SONS AND DAUGHTERS WILL SEE RAPID AND LATEST EQUIPMENT BEING INDUCTED, WITHOUT DELAYS AS WHEN BODY BAGS ARRIVE HOME IT WILL NOT BE POOR SONS OF FARMERS , CLERKS , GOVT OFFICALS , TAXI DRIVERS , TRANSPOTERS , SHOPKEEPERS AND LOWER RUNGS OF INDIAN SOCIETY .